The LG G5 Does Have An App Drawer, And Samsung May Not

Yesterday, just moments after the LG G5 announcement, the world exploded. Yes, that’s right LG had “removed” the app drawer from their launcher. While many murmured about the downfall of Android in becoming very iOS-like it seems that all is not lost just yet.

Upon further examination of the LG software it seems that yes the app drawer is off by default but can be turned back on by selecting “Easy Home”, which you can see in the YouTube video below from XDA TV Host TK. I am personally not sure how an app drawer makes it easier but LG have decreed it so.

On the flip side Samsung have done the opposite and inside Samsung Labs the app drawer can be turned off. By doing this every single app, including keyboards, themes and other miscellaneous apps are placed on the home page. Not sure why you would want that but if you do then there is now the option.

Upon further investigation it seems that Google themselves have been toying with the idea of removing the app drawer, maybe to reach out to the next billion users, as pointed out by Android Police’s Liam Spradlin. Code within Google’s Launcher 3 suggests the possibility of disabling the app drawer although this did not occur in the final product. Rumours persist that this could be Google’s new UX feature in Android version N.

Personally I think removing the app drawer entirely would be a big mistake unless there was a way to hide apps such as keyboards, themes etc from the home page. Myself, I do not actually have a shortcut for the app drawer but do use one that is accessed via a gesture. I like a clean, uncluttered desktop but I do see a lot of Android users with every app square on their home page used. Even then, I doubt they have every single app on their home page.

I have around 150 apps installed. Can you imagine the mess without an app drawer? If Google do remove the app drawer it could be a boon for custom launcher developers.

*crosses fingers and hopes Google actually enable it this time, thus expanding the market for custom launchers* https://t.co/flFbRBOoCU

Scott Plowman Associate Editor

Scott is our modding guru - he has his finger on the pulse of all things ‘moddable’, pointing us towards all the cutting edge mods hacks that are available. When he’s not gymming it up, or scanning the heck out of Nexus devices, you'll find him on the Ausdroid Podcast.

Outside of Ausdroid, Scott's a health care professional and lecturer at a well known Victorian university.

Sorry Scott but not really sir!!!!!! Have you ever used “Easy Home”? it takes away most of the features and settings. Also make the fonts huge. And there is no way to change this. So NO it doesn’t have an app drawer. it does but you will not like what you have to suffer with. I clicked it on my G4 and tried to see how much normal I could make it. You can’t at all. Easy home is for people that don’t know how to use any features in a phone. Basically for people who just make calls with… Read more »

Conspiracy, they want us slaves to only use big corporate apps they have deals with. Limiting how you have you home screen setup makes it cumbersome to use non defaults and stuff. Works great for the iphone sheeps

Yeah unsure about this ‘no app drawer’ stuff. If that’s the direction Google go with Android N, it will be very questionable. Always thought that was a great addition and meant your homescreens are clean without icon scattered everywhere or app dump folders created where people just throw all their apps in a folder to reduce the number of icons on screen.

But with LG and Samsung both offering options to activate or deactivate the app drawer, suggests to me that there might be some truth to the rumors of the next version of Android not having an app drawer.

Not exactly the app drawer, since it’s not persistent in the home app bar. In fact it’s more a default folder view than anything else, launched from a shortcut. If I had to guess, I’d say google are being dumb and removing the app drawer as an element going forward, and these are the various ways in which manufacturers are trying to deal with the fallout. I feel that google might try and have the ‘now on tap’ functionality replace it – because they have a firmer grasp on the IP for that, along with their sticky ‘data hungry’ fingers.… Read more »